Two Franklin Special District schools have been named 2024 Super Stretch Schools based on their remarkable progress in reading proficiency. Franklin Elementary and Moore Elementary both received this award over the summer based on i-Ready diagnostic data from the 2023-2024 school year that showed students made remarkable progress in reading proficiency, known as “stretch growth,” throughout the year.
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“i-Ready Super Stretch Schools are schools with more than 200 students enrolled where 55% or more of their students have achieved their Stretch Growth goals (Franklin Elementary and Moore Elementary achieved 56% Stretch Growth goal),” said Laura Hart, Ed.D., Partner Success Manager at Curriculum Associates, the company that developed and owns the i-Ready platform. “This means that over half of the students at these schools have made significantly more progress than their peers at other schools across the country, which will translate into improved student achievement over time.”
“We are excited for both Moore Elementary and Franklin Elementary,” said Mary Decker, assistant director of the Schools for Teaching and Learning. “Our district has seen the powerful impact of i-Ready on student learning, an example of the high-quality instructional materials that are standard in Franklin Special. It is no coincidence that these super-stretch schools have similarly high TCAP scores in English as a Second Language. Closing achievement gaps is possible, and these schools have shown how to do it.”
Achieving Stretch Growth goals puts students who are below grade level on a path to reaching their grade level. Students who are already at their grade level are put on a path to reaching a higher level. Put another way, achieving a Stretch Growth goal means the student has made significantly more than one year of academic progress, which allows a student at a lower level to close academic gaps over time OR a student who is already at their grade level to accelerate their learning process.
“Stretch Growth is an ambitious but achievable goal for student growth; only
“25-35% of students across the country meet i-Ready Stretch Growth goals each year,” Hart explained.
What is i-Ready?
i-Ready is a digital partner used by FSD that combines assessment and individualized online instruction to help teachers understand student needs and track their progress.
“After students complete a baseline assessment at the beginning of the year, they are given two growth goals: a typical growth goal (representing about one year of academic progress) and an aspirational growth goal (representing substantially more than one year of academic progress),” Hart said.
In FSD, students in grades K-8 use the online platform for reading (grades 2-8) and math (K-8). Assessment is adaptive, meaning it adjusts the difficulty of questions to each student’s ability. Each student begins at a difficulty level appropriate to their grade level. As a student provides correct answers, the questions become more difficult; as a student chooses incorrect answers, the questions become easier. The program provides valid and reliable growth data and helps teachers track both annual and long-term student progress. It does not replace daily instruction or curriculum.
Growth targets
i-Ready assigns differentiated growth goals to each student based on grade level and placement determined by the initial math and reading assessment at the beginning of the school year.
– Typical progress is the average progress that students in the same class and level are expected to make in a school year.
– Stretch Growth is a more ambitious growth goal that aims to move students to (or beyond) the required competency more quickly.
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